Dear Friends of Denver Parks,
We’ve had a tremendous response in the last two weeks at the People’s Fair and Gay Pride Festival from Denver registered voters. And we’ve made lots of new Friends of Denver Parks. So would like to say hello to those who are new and have agreed to take petitions and circulate them, and for those just joining our list.
Tag Archives: Friends of Denver Parks
Petition Circulators Pushing Hard towards Goal
Press Release June 17, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friends of Denver Parks Inc and homeowners Steve Waldstein and Zelda Hawkins filed their closing argument Monday June 17 in Denver District Court. The plaintiffs seek a preliminary injunction to prevent the City from trading 10.7 acres of Hampden Heights North Park for an office building at 1330 Fox St. A copy of the plaintiffs’ closing argument is attached and is available to the public at FriendsofDenverParks.Org.
The plaintiffs argue that the section 2.4.5 of the Denver City Charter allows park land acquired before 1955 to be designated by affirmative acts of the city government, separate and apart from designation by ordinance. Plaintiffs presented testimony from 6 witnesses and introduced 50 exhibits into evidence at the hearing June 12 and 13. The testimony, which was undisputed by defense lawyers for the City, showed that city officials, including planning officials and former mayor Bill McNichols, told citizens that HHNP is a park and would remain a park forever. Continue reading
Summary of the Court Proceedings
Good morning Friends of Denver Park,
Just a brief summary of the request for injunction proceedings 6/12-13/2013
If you want to decide a case based on the preponderance of evidence then I can say that John Case was a machine for two days. I was wore out each day as the testimony was so engaging. John just kept on and on, and didn’t let up.
The opportunity to see this experienced trial lawyer in action was an amazing privilege.
I did find Chuck Bonniwell’s testimony to be very valuable. He will be publishing an article about the hearing in his newspaper,
the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle. We really needed to establish that this area was used for recreation prior to 1955, and
he put everything in perspective easily. We knew that people rode horseback up and down the creek, and had some historical riding
stables to refer too. But he simply stated that of course people used the corridor because in a short grass prairie land environment
unless it is an irrigated area the only place that was green and full of trees was Cherry Creek or the Platte River. He also established what government experts could not was the fact that even though the City and County of Denver bought up all the food plain lands along Cherry Creek post dam collapse in 1933 to have control of the flood plain areas. Because it was the depression most lands were bought easily but not all sold the land, one in particular was the Cherry Creek Country Club
(he wrote a book on the history of the club). So Denver City and County had to buy “right of way easements”, so that people
could use the paths recreationally unimpeded.
In the meantime, some of our not so stellar city officials had some prize moments. Yes, Happy Haynes was overheard stating loudly “that son of a bitch” and stomped back into the courtroom while shaking her finger at John Case stating “how dare you “ she said more but I’m not sure exactly the words, but it was in reference to the question that John had
asked about her sister getting a position on DP&R after her deciding DPS vote. She had the hardest time recalling this information on the stand.
Vision for Denver
To view the movie, or order a hard copy.
Friends Of Denver Parks 